Stage 16 – Climbing Towards the Alps.

As predicted, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) joined the breakaway again in Stage 16, and collected the maximum points (20) in the intermediate sprint, with André Greipel nowhere to be seen.  Then, for “something audacious,” Sagan led the breakaway group throughout the day in a determined search for  his first stage victory.  With no help from his breakaway companions, Sagan was forced to set the pace all day, and to lead the group in reeling in any and all attackers.  About 3 Km from the summit of the final climb Spaniard Ruben Plaza (Lampre) succeeded in surging ahead and forged a 55-second lead over the Sagan group at the summit.  Sagan recouped 25 seconds with a furious chase down the steep 12-Km descent to the finish, but again finished in second place – his fifth second in this Tour.  Plaza collected his first ever TDF stage win.

Sagan collected 25 more sprint points – 45 total for the day, and now leads Greipel for the Green Jersey by an insurmountable 89 points.  Sagan was also awarded the Most Combative prize for the second day in a row.  Team owner Oleg Tinkov was whining before the Tour started that he wanted to cut Sagan’s salary for not winning enough races earlier in the season.  (Apparently Sagan’s winning the overall plus a couple of stages in the Tour of California was not sufficient.)  Sagan has finished in the top 5 for ten of the sixteen stages so far this Tour, and has been one of the most exciting racers in the first two weeks.  I wonder if Mr. Tinkov feels like he is getting his money's worth yet?

Oh, by the way, there was another race going on at the back of Stage 16 – the Yellow Jersey competition and the rest of the peloton.  As usual, Chris Froome and his Team Sky posse maintained law and order, quelling any and all uprisings.  Only Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) scored any time gain with a late attack that netted 28 seconds, but left him still in 8^th place with a deficit of 7:49.  Geraint Thomas (Sky) lost 38 seconds, because of a spectacular crash caused by Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin).  After head-butting a telephone pole and landing in the bushes, Thomas  miraculously re-mounted his bike and salvaged his 6^th place position.  A bit of re-shuffling occurred in the bottom half of the top-ten, but nothing worthy of a headline.

Stage 16 climbed through the region known as the Drôme and passed not far from the village of Lus la Croix Haute, where we found this quaint old wagon.

This view shows the village of Lus la Croix Haute with the Alps in the background.  The Alps will host the next stages of the Tour de France.

Along the road to Gap (site of the Stage 16 finish) you will pass dozens of random villages, such as this one.

We even found the road to Beaumugne, made famous by Jean Giono's wonderful novel, "Un de Beaumugne."  I really wanted to visit the village, but the road quickly deteriorated to a narrow, un-paved track, and I agreed to turn around for the sake of saving our marriage.  Good decision!